Long time no blog...I've been itching to put some of my thoughts into this form of communication to help myself process all that took place during my time in the Czech Republic, and as a way to share what happened at the English Camp with some of you I might not get to talk with otherwise. So to begin, let me start in an unconventional way by talking about the book I took with me.
I knew we had some long stretches of travel, both by plane and train, to reach Hotel Malenovice, the location of the English/Business Camp. Being a bookworm who doesn't get to read as much as he wants, I wanted to take along a good book as a travel companion. I perused the stacks of unread volumes in my office. I knew I needed to pack light, so one book would have to do, but I needed something with some girth to last me the whole trip. I also decided I didn't want something too mentally challenging for travel, not knowing what state I would be in towards the end of the trip (I planned to get very little to no sleep to adjust faster to a different time zone), so something on the lighter side seemed more appropriate for my backpack. Then I saw it - after sitting on my desk for over two years (or was it three?), it was finally time to crack open flashBang by Mark Steele.
I have read articles by Mark before, and I find him to be absolutely hilarious. So I truly looked forward to reading a whole entire tome penned by him. And I was not disappointed. The book had me laughing to the point of tears at places (my teammates had almost as much fun laughing at my laughing...), which opened me up to the deeper points Mark was making. The subtitle of the book is "how i got over myself" and I enjoyed reading Mark's journey from showman for God to child of God. I would find much pleasure in handing this book out to many of the young adults I get to work with because I know they would enjoy the book and learn through it as I did.
But one of the chapter titles did not sit well with me. Each chapter title was intentionally a bit of a paradox, much like the book title itself. Chapter titles such as "slapHAPPY" or "dumbSHOW" didn't make sense until you read the chapter. But even after reading Chapter 2, I didn't like the title "teethMARKS".
Mark talked about how many of us think that love kisses. But Mark argued that true love leaves teethmarks. A kiss only flatters, but doesn't last. Teethmarks, on the other hand, leave an impression that stays with the person. Having a teething 10 month old son, I would argue from personal experience that teethmarks just hurt. :o)
So we arrived in the Czech Republic, enjoyed a day in Prague taking in the amazing sites, travelled by train out east the next day, and made it to the hotel. After a day of preparing for the arrival of the students, camp got started on a Sunday with English testing and getting to know names. I was so amazed how on Sunday these people were just faces with a name, but by Friday these people were friends we hugged goodbye. Here are some of the highlights of the week for me:
My English class (pictured at the right). We laughed SOOO hard all week long. Man, did we have fun! They were such a great group to work with. I wrote in my journal to LeAnn that this group could take the worst of lesson plans and make the teacher seem like a genius. They had such a desire to learn, they had the most amazing attitudes, and they loved every moment we had together. It was such an honor to me that God would place me with that group. So Lumir, Tadek, Monika, Simona, Basia, Petr, Adam, and Roman - if any of you are reading this: thank you for letting me be your teacher for the week. You helped dispel every fear I had of teaching such high level English students and made it the most fun I've had in a while. And a special thank you to Adam for letting me be his English apprentice (sorry, inside joke there...)- The change in my English Reading/Conversation Group. While I had fairly fluent English speakers in my 9:00-11:30 am English Grammar class, I had a new-to-English conversation group. It was fun watching and hearing their English improve all week long. But the bigger highlight to me was watching a group of mostly athiests or agnostics have little interest in our reading time on Monday (we would read a section of the Gospels in English each Reading time and answer questions about it to work on reading skills, comprehension, and conversation in English) have tons of interest and honest questions on Thursday and Friday.
After a good breakfast and a few last goodbyes, our team gathered for a time of worship, prayer, reflection, and debriefing about the camp. As our team talked together and shared our experiences, I realized that through our love of our students, time with the campers, and just being ourselves, we had made an impact on the campers and they on us. It wasn't just a kiss that was nice in the moment and faded after the camp ended. We truly had left an impression on the campers - or to use Mark Steele's phrase, teethmarks. Guess I like Mark's chapter title after all...
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